The Body Shop and the Role of Design in Retail Branding

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The Body Shop and the role of design in retail branding
Tony Kent and Dominic Stone
The School of Creative Enterprise, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose – To demonstrate how a company’s retail store design relates to its brand and is inﬂuenced by, and contributes to, its corporate values. Design/methodology/approach – The case study brieﬂy summarises the signiﬁcance of corporate values, branding and design in the retail industry, and subsequently explores The Body Shop’s application of these elements to its business. The case study is contextualised by The Body Shop’s retail environment forming a particularly important communication channel for the company. Findings – The Body Shop has in many ways been the victim of its own success. Being a unique proposition, and having effectively created its own retail category, it has appeared slow to evolve its brand identity. The strong association between the company and its campaigning founder, increasing competition and changing consumer attitudes, have been signiﬁcant factors in the company’s struggle to re-align and update its brand. Research limitations/implications – The case study largely draws on secondary sources. However, it is informed by one of the authors’ experience and knowledge of The Body Shop’s design process, which has previously remained unpublished. Practical implications – The problems of planning and managing store design as a communications channel are highlighted. In particular, it demonstrates the difﬁculties in aligning a retailer’s visual identity with its brand and market. Originality/value – The case study examines the under-researched relationship between retail branding and design, and contributes to knowledge of the…...

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The Creator- When one read the words The Body Shop one would think of working on cars. Not for Mrs. Anita Roddick, she thought of The Body Shop as a way to give women what they had been looking for in cosmetics. Mrs. Anita Roddick was born in England in 1942, to Italian immigrants. She was a human rights activist and an environmental campaigner; she was also the founder The Body Shop. The Body Shop was a cosmetics company that produces and sold beauty products. The Body Shop was the first company to prohibit its ingredients on animals and one of the first to encourage fair trade in other third world countries. Mrs. Anita intention of creating this company was to make money for her daughters and herself while her husband travels the world instead the company became a multi-billion company. The Body Shop had 1980 stores serving over 70 million customers all over the world by 2004.
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The Body Shop- Managing Public Relations
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In 1990, upon conducting environmental analysis, Anita Roddick took a different approach in promoting her products, claiming that she was uninterested in seducing consumers with expensive images. Instead, she established the environmental projects and community care department to portray the company as one that is socially responsible. This was part of its business plan of......

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The Body Shop revolves its social and environmental campaigns around its five core values namely Defending Human Rights, Supporting Community Trade, Protecting the Planet, Against Animal Testing and Promoting Self-Esteem (The Body Shop 2012).
a) How well are they handling this?
Defending Human Rights
The Body Shop has a strong belief in the welfare of people, having a strong concern and respect for their heart and soul. They began their awareness campaign for HIV and AIDS since 1993, raising over £1m for the Staying Alive Foundation (Rawat 2010). The campaign against domestic violence attained £2.5m across 50 over countries by 2007. They also have awareness and funding campaigns to support the fight against human trafficking (The Body Shop 2012).
Supporting Community Trade
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Protecting the Planet
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